THEIR faces filled with joy, Ben and Freya Pedersen give the “thumbs up” for a treasured family photo with their beaming mum.

The picture, with Freya clutching her favourite cuddly toy, was released yesterday by heartbroken mother Erica as an inquest was opened and adjourned into their deaths.

Erica, 43, said: “My angels are in Heaven now.”

Her estranged husband Michael – who survived the Hyde Park IRA bombing that injured Sefton the horse – stabbed his two children before killing himself.

The bodies of Ben, seven, and Freya, six, were found in a lane with Pedersen, 51, on Sunday.

Erica, of Ashford, Middlesex, raised the alarm when her husband – who she had split from just weeks before – failed to return their children after taking them for a day out.

Pedersen, a former member of the Household Cavalry, was riding Sefton when the IRA carried out the London attack in 1982.

The horse suffered 37 wounds in the horror attack but survived.

Four soldiers and seven other horses on their way to Changing the Guard died. A second bomb in Regent’s Park killed seven Royal Green Jackets bandsmen.

The bodies of Pedersen, Ben and Freya were found next to their family car – a Saab convertible – in the hamlet of Newton Stacey, near Andover, ­Hampshire, an inquest in Winchester heard.

Post mortems revealed all three died from multiple stab wounds.

After hearing the preliminary cause of deaths, Hampshire Central coroner Grahame Short ordered the bodies to be released. A full inquest will be held on December 5, pending the results of ­toxicology tests.

The family car

Detective Inspector Dave Storey, of ­Hampshire Police’s major crime team, who is leading the ­investigation, described how officers found the bodies. He told the hearing: “We were contacted at 6.15pm on Sunday by a member of the public.

“There was a car parked in the lane as we were told by the caller … at the rear were the bodies of a man and two ­children.”

A pathologist carried out a post mortem on Mr Pedersen the next day. DI Storey said: “We are satisfied that there was no third party involved.”

A family friend identified the children’s bodies on their mother’s behalf. Pedersen was identified by his father.